Wireless services have traditionally been offered to subscribers through service providers with which they are already affiliated. As networks converge, or common standards adopted, there is a need to make available wireless services from non-affiliated service providers to potential subscribers. Traditional approaches for the establishment of service provider affiliation limit the choices for potential subscribers. Consider for example, a user having an existing communication device that wishes to operate in a community in which a variety of wireless services are offered from various service providers. In order to gain access to these services, the user has to select a service provider with which to establish an affiliation. Each service provider may only allow access to some of these services, the overall mix being different from that desired by the user. Thus, there may not be a convenient way to subscribe to the particular mix of services sought by the user.
New communication devices are being proposed or planned that are software definable to support multiple protocols and services. Such device may be a combination of techniques that include multi-band antennas and tuned frequency selective RF conversion; wideband analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) and digital-to-analog conversion (DAC); and the use of general-purpose digital signal processors (DSP) to implement intermediate frequency, base band and bit stream-processing functions. One example of a software defined radio is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,181,734, issued on Jan. 30, 2001, to Palermo for a Multiple Waveform Software Radio, which is hereby incorporated by reference. Palermo states that all processing of the information between reception or reproduction of speech and transmission and reception of radio frequency signals, respectively, is performed in software. Another example of this type of device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,091,715, issued on Jul. 18, 2000 to Vucetic, et al., for a Hybrid Radio Transceiver. Vucetic indicates that this type of radio transceiver provides for software-defined parameters to achieve flexibility in modulation and protocol types.
As certain wireless services become commodities, there is a greater demand for more flexibility in the choices for wireless service providers. However, despite the availability of more configurable radio transceivers, subscriber options have not adequately increased. What is needed is a method for more conveniently providing a potential subscriber with a desired set of available wireless services.